Bhagavad-gītā As It Is

Bhagavad-gītā 13.22

Prabhupāda: Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. [devotees repeat] [leads chanting of verse, etc.]

puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṅān kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu [Bg 13.22]

puruṣaḥ—the living entities; prakṛti-sthaḥ—being situated in the material world; hi—certainly; bhuṅkte—enjoys; prakṛti-jān—produced by the material nature; guṅān—modes of material nature; kāraṅam—cause; guṅa-saṅgaḥ—association with the modes of nature; asya—of the living entity; sat-asat—good and bad; yoni—species of life; janmasu—birth.

[02:16]

"The living entity in material nature thus follows the ways of life, enjoying the three modes of nature. This is due to his association with that material nature. Thus he meets with good and evil amongst various species of life."

[loud sounds of firecrackers throughout]

Puruṣa. Puruṣa means enjoyer, the living entity.

[Hindi aside greeting guest] Hare Kṛṣṅa. [Hindi]

So that day I have already explained, puruṣa. Puruṣa means the enjoyer, and prakṛti means enjoyed. So puruṣaḥ prakṛti-sthaḥ. The living entity, although...

[aside: tells child not to talk]

Prakṛti-sthaḥ means this material world. The living entity, although part and parcel of God, spiritual entity, but he has come to this material world to enjoy. Anyone who is in this material world, his original cause of coming down from the spiritual platform to this material platform means he wanted to enjoy.

In the spiritual world the only enjoyer is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. All others are enjoyed. But here in this material world everyone is trying to become the Supreme, and others, to be enjoyed. Everyone is trying to become God, and the last snare of māyā is that one is claiming that "I am God." When he tries to become big businessman, big zamindar, big minister, big president, or in the society big rich man—big, big always... And when he fails to become all kinds of "bigs," he wants to become one with God. By mixing, by merging into God, he will be the biggest. That is the philosophy. So basic principle is how to become big. Otherwise... Because unless I become very big, I cannot enjoy.

So what is the field of these enjoying activities? This body. That we have discussed. Kṣetra-kṣetra-jña. Idaṁ śarīraṁ kṣetram ity abhidhīyate [Bg 13.2]: "This body is the field of activities." So puruṣa, the living entities, has been entrapped by this material energy. That is called puruṣaḥ prakṛti-sthaḥ. He is not required to stay in this material world, but he has decided to enjoy this material world. Therefore he is here.

But he can give up. That is called liberty. That is called salvation. He can give up. Mukti. Mukti means... That is also described in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam: hitvā anyathā-rūpaṁ svarūpeṅa vyavasthitiḥ [SB 2.10.6].

[The merging of the living entity, along with his conditional living tendency, with the mystic lying down of the Mahā-Viṣṅu is called the winding up of the cosmic manifestation. Liberation is the permanent situation of the form of the living entity after he gives up the changeable gross and subtle material bodies.]

That is called mukti. Muktir hitvā anyathā-rūpam. Here, every living entity is situated anyathā-rūpam. Anyathā-rūpam means "otherwise," which is not his nature. His nature is to serve, but he is staying here not as servant but as master.

[aside in Hindi]

So puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte [Bg 13.22]. Bhuṅkte means enjoys. Prakṛti-jān guṅān. Prakṛti... He has come here to enjoy, but he is enjoying not the prakṛti, but prakṛti-jān guṅān, means the qualities of the prakṛti. There are three qualities of the prakṛti: goodness, passion and ignorance. Prakṛti-jān guṅān. These, these are products of material world. It is therefore described in another place, daivī hy eṣā guṅamayī..., guṅamayī mama māyā duratyayā [Bg 7.14].

[This divine energy of Mine, consisting of the three modes of material nature, is difficult to overcome. But those who have surrendered unto Me can easily cross beyond it.]

This illusory energy is... There are three qualities, qualitative. Some of them... Therefore we find different types of species of life.

Every living entity has association..., has associated with a particular type of guṅa. There are three guṅas, namely, goodness, passion and ignorance, and if you mix them up, then it becomes nine. Three into three equal to nine. And again if you mix up, nine into nine, then it becomes eighty-one. Therefore there are 8,400,000 species of life. Jalajā nava-lakṣāṅi sthāvarā lakṣa-viṁśati [Padma Purāna]. Nine hundred thousand species in the water. Similarly, birds, beasts, trees, insect, animals. Then we come to the human form of life. These different types of bodies are meant for enjoying in a different spirit. Everyone is trying to enjoy, but he is enjoying... He is not enjoying the prakṛti, but he is enjoying the association of the guṅa. Puruṣaḥ prakṛti-stho hi bhuṅkte prakṛti-jān guṅān, kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgo 'sya [Bg 13.22].

So every living entity is suffering or enjoying. There is no enjoyment. Everyone is suffering, but he... That is called māyā. He is suffering, but he takes it as enjoying. Even the hog, the pig, he is eating stool, but he is thinking that he is enjoying. He is enjoying. He enjoys a certain type of food according to his quality. Nowadays, because people are becoming more and more in the modes of darkness, they are eating so many abominable things. And prakṛti also, I mean to say, minimizing the supply of sāttvika food. Just like nowadays it has become scarcity of grains, of milk, of sugar. It is practical experience. Because people are becoming more and more in the modes of ignorance, therefore the foodstuff...

These foodstuff are in the modes of goodness. Just like Kṛṣṅa wants patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati [Bg 9.26].

[If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, fruit or water, I will accept it.]

Kṛṣṅa does not say, "Give me meat and drinking wine." Kṛṣṅa can eat everything. He is omnipotent. But He does not say that "You give me anything and everything." No. He specifically mentions, patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyaṁ yo me bhaktyā prayacchati. These things are the foodstuff in goodness: rice, dāl, wheat—that means grains—then sugar, fruits, vegetables, milk products. These foods are in the goodness. Similarly there are foods, very chili, very hot, these are in the passion. And similarly in ignorance also there are many foods, stale food, meat—these are in the ignorance.

So our business is, this human form of life, to get out of this cycle of birth and death and wandering in different species of life. This is the mission of human life. Human life, advanced consciousness, it is meant for getting out of the cycle of birth and death and wandering in different species of life. Therefore Caitanya Mahāprabhu says,

ei rūpe brahmāṅḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva guru-kṛṣṅa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja [Cc Madhya 19.151]

[According to their karma, all living entities are wandering throughout the entire universe. Some of them are being elevated to the upper planetary systems, and some are going down into the lower planetary systems. Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Kṛṣṅa. By the mercy of both Kṛṣṅa and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service.]

In this way the living entities, puruṣaḥ prakṛti-sthaḥ, within this material world, he is wandering in different species of life, in different planets. But the disease is birth and death. Even if you take birth in the Brahmaloka, Kṛṣṅa says, ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna [Bg 8.16].

[From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.]

Even if you [are] promoted to the Brahmaloka, the highest planet, there is also death. You cannot avoid. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam [Bg 13.9].

[Humility, pridelessness, nonviolence, tolerance, simplicity, approaching a bona fide spiritual master, cleanliness, steadiness and self-control; renunciation of the objects of sense gratification, absence of false ego, the perception of the evil of birth, death, old age and disease; nonattachment to children, wife, home and the rest, and evenmindedness amid pleasant and unpleasant events; constant and unalloyed devotion to Me, resorting to solitary places, detachment from the general mass of people; accepting the importance of self-realization, and philosophical search for the Absolute Truth—all these I thus declare to be knowledge, and what is contrary to these is ignorance.]

That is real knowledge, that "I don't want to die, but I am forced to die. I don't want to become old man, but I am forced to become old man. I don't want any disease, but disease is forced upon me." So these are the real problems.

So Kṛṣṅa says that ābrahma lo... If... You may get very long duration of life, very comfortable life, in higher planetary system. Just like people are engaged in doing, I mean to..., pious activities. The result of pious activities is that you get your birth in a very good family, in a rich family; you get beauty, you become educated, janmaiśvarya-śruta-śrībhiḥ [SB 1.8.26].

[My Lord, Your Lordship can easily be approached, but only by those who are materially exhausted, because one who is on the path of [material] progress, trying to improve himself with respectable parentage, great opulence, high education and bodily beauty, cannot address You with sincere feeling.]

Janma means birth, high-class birth, and aiśvarya means opulence, riches, and śruta means education, and śrī means beauty.

So by pious activities you can get all these things. And impious activities, the opposite number: in a family, abominable, pāpa-yoni, lower-grade family, not very beautiful, not educated, suffering in so many ways. So either you get this life or that life, the janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi is there. It is not that because you have got very beautiful body and born in very high-class family and highly educated, you will avoid janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. That is not possible. The real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi.

So kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgo 'sya sad-asad... Sad-yoni [Bg 13.22], high-class life, and asad-yoni, pāpa-yoni... So why one is born in lower grade family, why one is born in high-grade family? Kāraṅaṁ guṅa-saṅgo 'sya. The cause is as he has associated with different types of qualities. So unfortunately, this science, that there is birth after death, and there is... Actually, we are experience; we are seeing. But they do not inquire. They think that one can improve. That is not possible. Unless he changes the quality, he cannot improve. That is not possible. They do not know it. They are falsely trying to improve the position. Nobody is trying to become poor. Everyone is trying to become rich. But it is not possible, because he has got a particular type of body, and that body is already destined, and he has to achieve happiness or suffer distresses according to the body.

Therefore śāstra says, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovido na labhyate yad bhramatām upary adhaḥ [SB 1.5.18]: "You should try for that thing which you did not receive in your past lives." Past life, by our pious activities or impious activities, we have got a different type of body, here or in higher planetary system. That's all right. But that is not solution of my problem. The real problem is janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi [Bg 13.9].

So we should try, we should save time and utilize it, how to get out of this janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi. That is the whole Vedic civilization.

Therefore it is said, tasyaiva hetoḥ prayateta kovidaḥ. If you are intelligent, then you should try, you should engage your life, how to get out of this cycle of birth and death. Tapo divyaṁ putrakā yena śuddhyet sattvam [SB 5.5.1].

[Lord Ṛṣabhadeva told His sons: My dear boys, of all the living entities who have accepted material bodies in this world, one who has been awarded this human form should not work hard day and night simply for sense gratification, which is available even for dogs and hogs that eat stool. One should engage in penance and austerity to attain the divine position of devotional service. By such activity, one's heart is purified, and when one attains this position, he attains eternal, blissful life, which is transcendental to material happiness and which continues forever.]

We have to purify our existence so that we can revive our original position of eternal life, blissful life, full of knowledge. That is our requirement.

So modern civilization, they have no such information. Everyone is trying to improve his condition according to the quality. But that is not improvement. Real improvement is how to get out of this cycle of birth and death. That is real improvement. Janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi-duḥkha-doṣānudarśanam [Bg 13.9].

Thank you very much.

[aside:] So I will have to go with Mr. Ganatra. You can have your ārati. [end]